John Maxwell

John Maxwell (11 July 1859-21 February 1929) was a British Army general who fought in the Mahdist War, the Second Boer War, World War I, and the Easter Rising.

Biography
John Maxwell was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England on 11 July 1859 to a family of Scottish Protestant heritage. He graduated from Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1878 and was commissioned into the British Army's Royal Highlanders in 1879. In 1882, he served in Garnet Wolseley's expedition to Egypt during the Anglo-Egyptian War, and he went on to serve in the Mahdist War and march on the Khalifa's palace following the Battle of Omdurman. In 1897, he was appointed Governor of Nubia, and he became Governor of Omdurman a year later. In 1900, he became the military Governor of Pretoria and Western Transvaal during the Second Boer War, and he relinquished the office in 1902 with the goal of restoring Transvaal to civilian rule. After his return to Britain, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Third Army Corps in Ireland, and, in 1908, he was given command of the British forces in Egypt. He was briefly deployed to the Western Front of World War I before returning to Egypt later that year and repelling an Ottoman raid on the Suez. On 28 April 1916, he was sent to Ireland as military governor just before the suppression of the Easter Rising, and, from 2 to 9 May, he had 3,400 people arrested, 183 civilians tried, and 90 executed for treason, including all of the major leaders of the uprising. Prime Minister H.H. Asquith became concerned with the speed and secrecy of the executions, which were carried out after court-martial trials instead of ones of due process, and Maxwell had the remaining death sentences commuted to penal servitude. He retired in 1922 with the rank of full General and died in 1929.